New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-08-05
THEIR EYES BEGIN TO OPEN

If Mr.. George William Curtis's Newport
sreech means anything, it means that the
Independents as body politely but firmly
decline to be looked upon as the fag-end Of
the Democracy any longer. Indications OF q
restless spirit have been going on in Harpers
Weekly" for some months, and indeed with
the exception Of some free-trade o'g ms, all
| the Mugwump newspapers have been growing
moro and more serious ever since the StOno-
Benton affair directed their attention 80 fore
IDLY to the Presidents record upon Civil Ser
vice reform. Though the Independents left
the Republican party with host OF pleas
and excuses, their chief point was this: That
there was no issue before the country OF any
Importance except the reform OF the Civll
Service: that Mr.. Blaine was not reformer
and that Mr.. Cleveland was. OF course, this
position was disputed. The party maintained
that the public service was already In ex-
celIent condition, and would be maintained
in its purity by Mr. Bl inc, while the cleo
ton of Mr.. Cleveland would mean great
scramble for spoils, a dearth of statesman
ship at Washington and the prostitution Of
the service throughout the country.
But the Mugwumps, dccl ming Republican
counsel and repudiatng Repu lIcan prophecy,
went their own way, and now when Mr.
Cleveland's term is drawing to close, their
greatest leader, in carefully considered
speech, acknowledges that he is grieved
and disappointed man. He has studied the
figures, and they don't foot up reform lie
finds that the Civil Service law apples TO
only $4,000 out of about 5000 Federal
Offices, so that the mere keep NJ Of the law
is not reform. The law may be o Q, ed, and
the spoismen run riot all through the service
at the same time in fact, Mr.. CuItls tells us,
they have run riot There are about $4,000
chief offices, the holders Of which, appointed
by the President, control more or less patron
age and form the great po itical machine at
which the reform is really directed. Mr..
Cleveland has been In Office twenty-nlne
months, and in that time he has filed $4,000
Of these offices with Democrats. Mr.. Curtis
feels compelled to concede that this looks
amazingly like clean sweep and wholly IN
like reform.
When be turns from the figures and looks
at the moral forces at work. he finds little TO
reassure him. Mr.. Cleveland has given Bos-
ton Saltonstall and has kept In place in
New-York a Pearson, but against thee two
appointments are to be debitcd thousand
bad ones German snaps his fingers at re-
form in Maryland and launches his Ii &c nses
and Raisins upon the pc Itical fell in defiance
of the President Vest AMI COckrell in Mis-
souri,, Voorh es and Holman in Indiana, and
Randall in Pennsylvania ride roug shod over
reform and boist, rously pr Use Mr.. Cleveland's
Administration. Virginia has been given
over to the Bourbon Democracy bound hand
and foot, and in all parts of the country the
men who most loudly demand Cleveland's re-
nomination are VIGOROUSLY hostile to every
principle of reform. In the same b cath they
sneer at reform and glorify Cleveland. No
body knows this better than Mr.. Curtis, and
while his sympathies move him to apologize
for what his honesty forces him to condemn
he realizes that he and those he rep csents
will soon BIO compelled to make practical
choice between their new allies, who have
betrayed them, and their old comrades.
The Republican party stands just where 1t
stood in 1884. 1t was rieht then and 1t is
right now 1t is honestly party of reform,
and stands ready to extend the system until
it shall be impossible to climb into power on
the back of patronage. The independents
are evidently tired Of being first used as tools
and then treated as fools. 1t will soon be
seen how much wisdom they have actually
learned by their doeful experience.